The Venus one also has a speaker in the handset as well as the base unit, so you can hold it to your ear if need be.

Quote from: DND Services Ltd on February 25, 2013, 11:45:36 PM
The Venus one also has a speaker in the handset as well as the base unit, so you can hold it to your ear if need be.

That seems to be a good feature, i woud have to run a external speaker to aid the speaker on the unit if i fitted mine in the buggy, the internal one on the unit is fine for the Defender but i would struggle to hear it in the buggy

I`m going to be running my two dash speakers as external CB ones as well as the mic.

I have a Kernow Beta 4100 (now discontinued), mounted in my centre console:

Gearstick by Zebethyal, on Flickr
I was using a pair of Shakespeare 8 foot Loran C antennas, one for CB the other for FM (not ideal but it matched) - these are basically marine antennas, they had a tendency to destroy the heavy duty mounts I had them on.
I may change for a Tornado Stinger 1.5m for the CB and a fibreglass whip for the FM (I have a few of these in various states of destruction and several different colours, should be able to make a good one).

I used to have a Harvard 410T hand held unit with 40 channels and it was great! Use to bomb about on my BMX with it attached to the front bars and that was back in 1985!!!!

one of mine is a Stalker IV,  ol' skool

So moving this on,

Which one is best nowdays for new installations if I wanted to get one?

The one Andy and Dave have or any others?

I too am reading this with interest as may fit one in mine (Venus one) behind the dash out of site with a remote plug for the hand set which I can take out and no one will be the wiser that a CB is fitted to the car
I used to have a Fidelity 2000, I think that is what it was ...all black and chrome with lots of chrome knobs and switches on it...back in the 80s 

Shaggy,

Venus comes with a really long lead and socket so you can hide it away somewhere quite easily

QuoteCan anyone hear them above their engines?

Good question...

I have a small pair of speakers in the headrest area of both seats and right by my..... Errrm, head! 

They are 3.5mm jacked through a 'Y' socket and into the external output on the CB. Doing this makes
the CB MUCH easier to hear, believe me, and Hazel is spot on asking that.

Also I have seen a bluetooth thingy that plugs in the CB and a wireless ear piece can recieve...

Brilliant idea 

In my experience, in a buggy, any buggy, you must get the speakers as near to your head as is possible. Trying
to get useful sound from the CB itself while driving, is a complete waste of time!

Peter

Yes been in Peters with the CB and it is a good idea to add an extra speaker. Sadly as yet for both Dave and I the Venus is unproven yet. I think the little box will be in the back so I may, like Peter add an extra speaker. I will try and post some extra photos of it if I can of the cable etc. But be aware compared to other "standard CB's" its not cheap - typically about £110 I think. Plus the aerial, release + GP. etc.

As Andy says, the venus is yet unproven.

But to answer a few questions:
the mic and lead are about the standard CB length, but have a connector on the end similar to those used by the telephone socket in your home, or a network connector at the rear of your computer. So it could be plugged in and unplugged with ease, providing you were carefull. It also comes with a 2m mike lead extension, so you can remote mount the unit.

There is a speaker built into the microphone, and also one into the base unit. Obviously, either are going to be difficult to hear over a set of Buggy cannons, but there is an external speaker socker on the rear that will run an 8 Ohm speaker (or two small 4 Ohm speakers wired in series)

Very expensive considering its alternatives, but this picture of mine, may indicate what sold me on this one - its tiny !!!

Quote from: Peter on March 01, 2013, 09:07:09 PM
Also I have seen a bluetooth thingy that plugs in the CB and a wireless ear piece can recieve...

Thinking of the noise made by the squelch function cutting in, or the empty channel white noise if not - is that really a noise you would want in your ear whilst driving ?

I like the idea of a speaker in the mic too.... Neat

I will take a photo of my speakers in the headrest and post here.

One of the things some types of MX5 seats offer, is the cavity already present
in the headrest to accommodate a hidden speaker 

Couldn't hear my passenger with my old exhaust